Yahoo News Disney+ Unveils Expanded Korean Originals Slate for 2024
Disney+ is steadily boosting its output of high-end Korean drama. The streaming service on Monday revealed a growing slate of star-driven Korean originals for 2024, building on the momentum achieved last year with the critical and commercial popularity of hit shows like Moving and Big Bet.
Newly announced titles joining the company’s Korean slate include thriller Blood Free, mystery series Unmasked, actioner The Tyrant, crime drama Gangnam B-Side, and a season three renewal of reality show The Zone: Survival Mission. These series add to Disney’s previously announced 2024 tentpole shows Lightshop, created by hit-making webtoon creator turned screenwriter Kang Full, and period drama Uncle Samsik, starring Korean film icon Song Kang-ho (Parasite) in a rare TV series role. Disney says more Korean titles will join its slate throughout the year. (Summaries of the Korean shows unveiled so far are below.)
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“The new Korean originals announced today really builds on the positive momentum and success of our APAC content slate last year,” says Carol Choi, Disney’s executive vp original content strategy in APAC. “We will continue to scale our creative ambition with a curated collection of APAC originals, centered on quality storytelling and top talent, in collaboration with the region’s most exciting storytellers.”
Disney+ launched in South Korea in November 2021 and has steadily ramped up its local content output to tap into the surging popularity of K-drama across Asia, where growth potential remains significant.
Below, The Hollywood Reporter shares Disney+’s 2024 Korean series slate.
Blood Free
Starring Ju Jihoon (Kingdom) and Han Hyojoo (Moving), Blood Free follows a former bodyguard haunted by the failures of his past. After diving down a rabbit hole of tangled leads, he finds himself recruited to protect the CEO of a controversial lab-grown meat company who is also a survivor of the fateful attack that changed his life.
Unmasked
Set in modern-day Seoul, Unmasked follows a crack team of investigative journalists who are fighting for their careers after broadcasting a controversial story. With time running out, the team are given an impossible task if they want to save their jobs — solve a 20-year-old cold case involving a famous actor who disappeared without a trace. Unmasked stars Kim Hyesoo (Under The Queen’s Umbrella).
The Tyrant
The Tyrant follows a U.S. government agent as he tries to recover a deadly new virus stolen from the South Korean government. With everything at stake, this action-packed series sees global intelligence agencies battle against nefarious parties to prevent the virus spreading across the world.
Gangnam B-Side
A thrilling crime drama, Gangnam B-Side follows a pariah detective pulled back into the game after his daughter’s friend goes missing. The latest in a long line of women to go missing in the Gangnam area of Seoul, the detective will delve back into a world of vice, drugs and corruption to uncover something that threatens to topple some of the city’s wealthiest elite.
The Zone: Survival Mission – Season 3
The popular Disney+ Korean variety has been renewed for its third season with Kwon Yuri and Yoo Jaesuk returning alongside new hosts — former UFC fighter Kim Donghyun and popular YouTuber Dex. Together, the foursome will get up to more hijinks than ever before as they try to survive an increasingly complex range of challenges.
Uncle Samsik
Starring Parasite star Song Kangho, and Byun Yohan (Mr. Sunshine), Uncle Samsik is a societal drama set in 1960s Korea that follows an idealistic politician, and a mysterious political fixer called Uncle Samsik who operates in the shadows. Together the pair form an uneasy partnership with the goal of transforming a struggling post-war Korea into a prosperous country where everyone can afford three meals a day.
Light Shop
An adaptation of the hit webtoon of the same name, Light Shop follows a group of strangers, each struggling to come to terms with a traumatic event in their past. Going about their daily lives, each individual is mysteriously drawn to a light shop that sits at the end of a seedy alleyway. Guarded by a vigilant shopkeeper, the light shop could hold the key to the strangers’ pasts, presents and futures. Starring Ju Jihoon (Kingdom), Lee Jungeun (Parasite), Park Boyung (Oh My Ghost) and Bae Seongwoo (Veteran), this is the latest series from Kang Full, the creator behind 2023’s breakout hit series Moving, Disney’s most-watched Korean original to date. Light Shop exists within the same storytelling universe as Moving, making the titles the start of a new Korean franchise for Disney.
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